Editor's choice: Kodak moments

Remember the Kodak moment? If you do, you’re probably like me, an OldGen real estate professional with fond memories of those instant technicolour photos produced by Kodak’s Instamatic cameras in the 1960s.

Kodak moments defined my childhood, to some extent just like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are documenting the lives of the NextGen professionals that surrounded me this week at the ICSC Retail Strategy & Trends Forum in Berlin. But there is quite a significant difference. While I have a handful of precious Kodak (or were they Polaroid?) moments pasted into my childhood photo albums, youngsters today have a choice of dozens if not hundreds or even thousands of photos to choose from and post online. Worldwide a staggering 8 billion photos are being taken every day, trend watcher Richard van Hooijdonk told delegates.

I didn’t need to come to Berlin to be reminded that the instant cameras and photo rolls of my youth are just a memory. But it is actually an extremely important realisation. The pace at which the world is changing is mindboggling, thanks to new technology and data, and the early sessions at the ICSC conference gave OldGen and NextGen delegates alike a riveting – and somewhat disturbing - taste of what the future holds.

From driverless cars to robot assistants
Here’s my selection of Kodak moments captured from a presentation held by Andrew Vaughan, CEO of Redevco, during the NextGenLive session – an innovation in itself which connected the conference room in Berlin online to the boardrooms of ICSC members across Europe. During his talk, Vaughan showed slides of: a driverless car; a Domino Pizza Drone; an augmented reality dinner party; and a robot assistant.

These slides fired my imagination, not so much because of the new technologies behind these inventions, but because they no longer belong to the future. The driverless car is on its way, Vaughan said, showing a prototype from Mercedes Benz. The German carmaker is not alone, he added: ‘Virtually every self-respecting car company is working on a driverless car.’

Drone deliveries
There’s more. Imagine that every craving, like for a pizza, can almost instantly be fulfilled through a drone delivery… Drones are another field with unlimited possibilities and implications and capable of resolving the ’last mile’ logistics problem, Vaughan noted. ‘That will really open up e-commerce,’ he predicted.

One of the most disturbing slides in Vaughan’s presentation was that of a dinner party with each of the attendees sitting round the table wearing an augmented reality eye-set from Occulus Rift. If, like me, you worry about the impact of smart phones at the dinner table, then consider how this technology could change the dynamics of human interaction. Today these eye-sets are big and clunky, like the first generation of mobile phones, but it won’t be long before they become a fashion accessory just like the I-phone.

3D printing will also disrupt things and the possibilities seem endless. Amazon will in future have self-driving cars printing out the product we have bought on-line and delivering it to our doorstep. Indeed, 3D printing can help solve some of the world’s health and food supply problems, Van Hooijdonk said. With 3D printing food producers can make artificial meat that is healthier than some of the real products we eat and they can make them in the shape of a product that we love and respond well to like a banana, he added. ‘3D printing will disrupt everything.’

Moore’s law
With all these disruptive forces and new phenomena like the sharing economy, a key question is how do we cope. According to Moore’s law, the speed of change is not about to slacken, Van Hooijdonk pointed out. ‘Just a couple of years ago, it took 20 months to improve batteries or chips. Now it takes 5 to 6 months and they have become cheaper.’

It is also a fact that retail ranks right up there with technology as one of the most dynamic industries in our modern world. Given that change has become a constant factor in our lives and the pace of change is forever accelerating, retail landlords and others active in this sector need to rethink their current strategies and organisations and create a new foundation to enter the future, Van Hooijdonk said.

One of the best ways of embracing change is by harnessing the minds of young people, he said. ‘We need future labs, young people who are not yet part of the existing culture. Talk to those who are 16, 18 or 25 years old. And outsource everything. There are people out there who are better than you in almost everything.’

As I head back to Amsterdam, I can't help but feel a nostalgic pang for the Kodak moments of my past. But I also come away from this ICSC conference feeling inspired and excited. To quote Christopher Wicker, head of the Retail Consulting Company, the retail real estate sector is technicolour while the rest is black and white.

Judi Seebus
Editor in chief